One of my favorite animated series of all time is Futurama and nothing thrilled me more than the Toy Fair announcement of more Futurama toys in the works from Toynami. Series 8 is now available and for quite a while, there was no word on anything past this assortment. If you've been holding back in case the line ends abruptly, now's your chance to do some catching up. We might have a full set of essential major and minor characters yet!

What's interesting about these assortments is that there's only a release of two figures per series, which makes collecting this line painfully slow. Worse yet is the BUILD-A-BOT feature where you can collect multiple figures from a wave to build an all-new robot character, but it may take you half a year to make it a reality.

Series 8 gives us a variant of everyone’s favorite booze-drinking, cigar chomping bending unit, Bender, but this time he'll be cooking up a storm as CHEF BENDER. Next up is the villainous ex of Professor Farnsworth, MOM. Both figures come with parts to complete ROBERTO, a member of the Robot Mafia. You'll need the parts included with Hermes and Professor Farnsworth (Series 7) to complete Roberto.

If you've been collecting Futurama from the start, you'll recognize the familiar box design with groovy funktastic art gracing the sides. What's even better is the unique box art between the two figures and you'll find the animated version of the figure on the back of the box with a brief bio description. This is the type of stuff I like to see from toy companies.

The sculpts of both figures are pretty awesome. Toynami has managed capture the essence of the 2D cartoon and put them into a 3D figure. Since Bender was already made, his sculpt is enhanced with his chef uniform sculpted over the basic Bender body.

Mom actually has two sculpts, one featuring the outer fat body and we also have her thin frail self. The figure of Mom has actually warped and standing her upright is a mission impossible. She'll just have to stay in the fat suit. Roberto is a great Build-A-Bot that stands tall and doesn't have a problem being too heavy for his legs.

Accessories aren't exactly a huge deal with Futurama but it's great when we do get them. I normally shy from variants, but Chef Bender comes with three unique eyes that work with previous Bender figures, making him an excellent buy. He has focused eyes, thoughtful eyes, and blank expression eyes.

He's also packed with his chef hat that fits over his head and a wooden spoon. Chef Bender also comes with the arms and knife of Roberto. There's a tab on the knife that plugs into Roberto’s right hand. A great touch that enhances the accessories stay where they need to be.

Mom comes with the outer dress that snaps together down the side. It's great that it's included to change up her look as she does in the show. You can also find the head of Roberto packaged with her.

Paint work is simple and it works. I didn’t find anything too noticeable but the hands on Mom's fat suit are a different shade than her face. However, it' s a minor issue.

There isn't a lot of articulation to go around but if you've been collecting this line you already know that. Mom surprisingly doesn't even have neck articulation. But she does have shoulders and a joint on the left elbow and left wrist. Chef Bender has about four points of articulation: neck, shoulders, and legs which are bendy. Roberto has about six points of articulation which is an improvement over both Bender and Mom. You can find his articulation in the neck, shoulders, waist, and hips.

As simple as these figures are, I'm really happy with them. You can find them at most e-tailers between $13-15 each. If you consider four figures adding up to $60 and with one Build-A-Bot, that's 5 figures total at $12 each. Not terrible considering how expensive toys are these days. If you're a fan of Futurama, these are the toys for you. Url and Wooden Bender are Series 9 with a build-a-character that you will not want to miss out on: Morbo. That's almost better than Snoo Snoo. Almost.